The No-Pitch Pitch
Having the right agency partners for your business (creative, media, digital, PR, activation, sponsorship etc.) is a crucial part of more effective marketing.
As marketers, you know the value of an agency team that are great to work with, add value and deliver business results. Agency partners can be a significant spend for any business so it’s important that you also have procurement rigour, delivering value with full transparency.
A media agency contract, in particular, is usually a very significant spend when you combine both fees and media costs.
How do you make sure that you are getting the best results, the best value and a clear picture of all costs (including fees, margins, mark-ups, out of scope charges etc.)?
Ongoing agency management structure and process.
Design a structured agency management process. This ensures you are delivering results, prevents service issues arising and makes sure you stay sharp in value terms.
You should have a work plan for the year that includes at a minimum:
· Regular campaign analysis; reviews of online and offline media, KPIs, business results etc.
· Strategy and business reviews.
· Agency performance reviews (SLA, PRIP).
· Media audit / contract compliance review.
· Hours and resource reviews.
Conduct Periodic Full Reviews
We recommend that you also conduct a full review every three years. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a pitch process.
First, assess how satisfied you are with the current agency’s strategic and service performance and business impact. Agree priorities as you would for a pitch ( e.g. team, strategy, business results, market knowledge, responsiveness, process & control, data etc.). Score current performance against each of these areas. Review the scores and assess if these are issues than can be resolved with some good focus and collaboration!
If you really need a change a pitch may be the best course for you. If you are generally happy with your agency we would recommend a No-Pitch Pitch approach.
The No-Pitch Pitch
This process involves a complete review of agency costs and media costs, benchmarked against agency norms. It allows you to determine whether you have best-in-class value and full transparency. Armed with this detailed information, you can reassure yourself that you are in a good place with your agency in commercial terms or identify areas for re-negotiation.
Your performance review will also identify areas of focus and improvement for a new contract and commitments you will need from the agency going forward.
Procurement Partners
In our experience, Procurement are generally very open to a No-Pitch Pitch as long as they can see a structured process and ‘proof’ of value and results, including market benchmarking. Generally they understand cost and risks to business in pitching and can be as keen as the marketing team to avoid.
If you’re in need of an agency review, talk to us.
We’d be happy to explain the No-Pitch Pitch approach and give you tips and guidelines for managing the process.
+353 1 556 3678